Please view the information contained in this site from a purely historical perspective. I am not involved in the Dreamcast Scene anymore, but I'll leave this information and files available for at least a few more weeks until I decide what else I can do this this site.

08 Mar 2005

USB Coders Cable CAD files!

CAD files in Eagle format now available: USBCC-F. Note: does not include dual crystal "band-aid" fixes.

19 Dec 2004

USB Coders Cable Web-Page

I have created a preliminary web-page for the USB Coders Cable. It contains a brief history, a short technical write-up, schematic and parts resources.

5 Dec 2004

USBSerial DC Coders Cable Update

The last batch of prototype printed circuit boards should arrive this week. I plan on building a couple up for testing by next weekend. As promised I will be posting the schematic and parts list here once the testing is complete. I have started talking with an online store about selling the "USB DC Coders Cables." I will keep you posted when and where they will be available.

Here's some of the pictures taken during the development of the cable:

21 June 2002

This is the port of the Manchester Nurbs Library done about two months ago. It was used in 3D Invaders to make the donut shaped "Invaders" (place holders really). The included example code works under KOS-CVS, but I've included a patch for KOS-1.1.7 to fix GL_POINTS and an obscure texture bug. For those of you with the binary release of KOS-1.1.7 I've included binaries for the libgl and libnurbs libraries.

Here is a "get the feel" of play pre-release version of 3D Invaders. This is the game I'm working on for submission to the DCEmu Programming Contest. There is no scoring and only one level. No menu, and no background music yet. I've included the source for completeness, but It's built against the current KOS-CVS with the local addition of a yet to be commited NURBS library. For those who want to burn a CD-R the hard way I've also put up a IP.BIN and 1st_read.bin for the game.

Just to prove I have not been lazy over the holidays here's the result of some experiments with using fog on the DC. The unscrambled binary is a port of a Mesa demo called Tunnel V1.5 by David Bucciarelli. It's not a complete port, just enough for me to test some ideas for KGL. It also shows the use of GL_TRIANGLE_STRIPS (Hacked KGL). I'm looking forward to seeing the results of Benoit Miller's changes to KGL. He's making some neat changes from what I've heard.

I have released an example for doing pseudo-sprites with alpha transparency and backface culling. It was created to help answer a question posed by MrJeff on the Consolevision Dreamcast Developer Cafe thread: "punch-through and alpha blending on KOS/KGL."

DCFloys was never really intended for public release but I thought it looked neat and I found it sort of addicting to play with. Tweeking the various parameters changes the behavior of the critters (See the README file below.) I got tired of adjusting, compiling, adjusting, compiling... so I added a quick and dirty menu so it could be done in real-time. The purpose of this program was originally to come up with some AI for the invading ships/creatures. I was browsing some AI related sites when I stumbled onto Ariel Dolan's AI website, and saw his Floys Java Applet. The behavior of Floys are rather insect-like compared to Craig Reynolds Boids (bird-like flocking behavior). A good example of a Boids applet is at Conrad Parker's site.

Floys are interesting in that they can attack an intruder. I figured that was just the sort of AI I was looking for to imbue the attacking hoard with. During the initial implementation I quickly discovered the notorious Euler angle gimbel lock problem that occurs when rotating objects on all three axis. This program does not address this issue. Of course the real problem may be my slippery grasp of the subject.

The Floys are represented by the ship object you may have already seen in the sidctest program. As they fly around on the screen they try to point their nose in the direction they are heading. You can see that they sometimes appear to be flying backwards or at other odd attitudes. That is the gimbel lock problem I talked about earlier. While tinkering with with the code I wondered if it would be possible to see the 3D world from the point of view of the Floy's themselves. I setup the program so that you can switch views between that of an imaginary chase ship or that of a creature watching the action from another vantage point like say the top of a mountain.

The landscape was created from a picture taken during the Mars Pathfinder mission.

The motion of the ships in this test program is quite un-realistic. They pass through each other; spin around instantly in a way that would surely kill the occupants. But what the heck, this is after all just kludgy test code... right ;D

I'd have stuck some music in here, but I don't know any composers on the scene, and I don't want to offend anyone by ripping off their music without permission. So if you want to contribute a S3M or ogg file please let me know and I'll add it. Maybe something in the genre of Trance or Ambient would work nice with this.

I've decided to release a sample of one my DC test programs. It contains a couple of simple 3D objects that were created using Blender. You can use the analog stick, D-pad, and L/R triggers to move, zoom, and rotate the objects. It's all done with Kallistios of course with the new GL stuff. You can get the source and elf. The source is hacky cuz, well, that's the way it is. It's just a test! For the un-initiated you'll need a DC developers cable or DC Broadband Adapter, and Andrew Kieshnick's DC-LOAD tool from http://www.cerc.utexas.edu/~andrewk/dc/.

Welcome to my little corner on the Internet. I'll keep this short and simple. My current interest is game console programming. I was browsing for Dreamcast information one day, and was surprised to find there are web pages and sites dedicated to game console programming. I found sites for Dreamcast, PSx, Gameboy and others.

I found the Dreamcast sites particularly interesting. So much so that I surfed over to EBay and put a bid on a system that included a broadband adapter, keyboard, VMU, and VGA adapter. I lucked out and a few days later I was the proud owner of an orphaned Dreamcast. It is my intention to use and build upon the knowledge and code of the generous programmers, who have made their work available under various open source licenses. My first work is going to be a 3d version sometthing on the order of Taito's (oops, I said Atari before) Space Invaders. So far I've been learning the basics of using Dan Potter's Kallistios, a.k.a. KOS, a light weight hardware abstraction layer and mini kernel for game consoles. Currently Dan is working supporting the Dreamcast and Gameboy Advanced architectures. Check out Dan's site at dcdev.allusion.net and get the latest sources at SourceForge.

To aid my understanding of 3d mathmatics and programming I picked up a couple of books from the local B&N. They are: